In recent years, magnetic disk drive have become compact and light in weight, with a large storage capacity. In order to respond to this tendency, a large number of magnetic disks (to be referred to as unit disks hereinafter) and a magnetic head must be efficiently arranged within a limited space. A conventional magnetic head normally comprises a floating type magnetic head/slider assembly comprises a slider (acting as a fluid bearing), a core, and a gap, and the assembly is supported by a suspension.
In an arrangement of such a magnetic head/slider assembly, as shown in the plan and side views of FIGS. 3 and 4, magnetic head/slider assemblies 3a and 3b, respectively supported by suspensions 2a and 2b, are vertically alinged between two opposing unit disks 1a and 1b. With this arrangement, the distance between a recording surface of the unit disk 1a or 1b and a mounting surface of the suspension 2a or 2b must be normally about 2.54 mm. Therefore, with the above vertical alignment, the distance between the unit disks 1a and 1b must be at least 5.08 mm.
In order to reduce this distance between the unit disks, when magnetic head/slider assemblies 3a and 3b, respectively supported by suspensions 2a and 2b, are alinged parallel to each other, as shown in the plan and side views of FIGS. 5 and 6, the distance between unit disks 1a and 1b can be reduced to 2.54 mm+.alpha.mm (.alpha..div.0.5).
However, this structure poses the following problem. With the parallel arrangement of the magnetic head/slider assemblies 3a and 3b shown in FIG. 5, however, a so-called yaw angle .theta.y is formed between a longitudinal direction X of the magnetic head/slider assembly 3 and the tangential direction Dt of the unit disk, as shown in FIG. 7. An increase in the yaw angle .theta.y causes a floating amount of the magnetic head/slider assembly 3 to decrease. When a magnetic disk drive having a linear carriage is used, this tendency is enhanced as the magnetic head/slider assembly 3 moves toward the inner periphery of the unit disk 1. At the inner periphery of the disk 1, since a speed of the unit disk 1 relative to the magnetic head/slider assembly 3, i.e., a peripheral speed, is decreased, the floating amount thereof is further reduced. Therefore, the magnetic head/slider assembly 3 is easily brought into contact with the unit disk 1, resulting in so-called headcrash.
In order to solve this problem, as shown in the plan view of FIG. 8, the central axes y of the suspensions 2a and 2b, respectively supporting the magnetic head/slider assemblies 3a and 3b, are inclined with respect to a moving direction C of the assembly 3, so that as shown in FIG. 9, the longitudinal direction X of the assembly 3 coincides with a tangential direction Dt1 of the unit disk 1 at the inner periphery where the peripheral speed is low. With this structure, the yaw angle .theta.y is reduced to zero at the inner periphery, while the longitudinal direction X of the assembly 3 does not coincide with a trangential direction Dt2 of the unit disk 1 to form the yaw angle .theta.y therebetween at the outer periphery, where the peripheral speed is high. Therefore, a total variation in the floating amount of the assembly 3 on the entire unit disk 1 can be maintained uniform.
Note that in FIG. 9, Dr1 and Dr2 indicate radial directions of the unit disk 1, which extend through a head gap 5 when the magnetic head/slider assembly 3 is at the inner and outer peripheries of the unit disk 1, respectively.
However, in the conventional magnetic head/slider assembly 3, the head gap 5 is formed in a direction Y perpendicular to the longitudinal direction X of the assembly 3, as shown in FIG. 7. With the arrangement of the magnetic head in FIG. 8, when the magnetic head/slider assembly 3 is mounted on a linear carriage (not shown) to periodically record a signal on the unit disk 1, bit patterns 6 on adjacent tracks are discontinuous, as shown in the plan view of FIG. 9. This creates another problem due to phase shift in waveforms when data on the adjacent tracks is scanned as servo data.